Somers' ATV Code Likely to Remain Unchanged

By TOM BARTLEY

March 15, 2017 at 8:47 AM

Content Options

An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a quadCredits: Stock Photo/Metro Creative Connection

SOMERS, N.Y. – Whether they love ATVs or loathe them, most everyone agrees they’re noisy critters. So in Somers last week, it was no surprise that those all-terrain vehicles generated sustained, often passionate sounds in a packed meeting room of the Elephant Hotel.

For more than an hour, elected town officials heard a range of views on both the ATV, or “quad,” as fans affectionately call the four-wheeler, and possible loosening of a key ATV restriction, adopted in 1984. Some two-dozen speakers addressed the board, making clear their support or opposition to the code change. And while the board took no official position at Thursday night’s meeting, its five members later made clear there will be no change in the code.

“The code hasn’t been amended nor will it be, based on the input we got,” Supervisor Rick Morrissey said this week.

The board’s four councilmen also opposed revisions in Chapter 160, which regulates ATV operation.

“The law really doesn’t have to be changed,” Councilman Anthony J. Cierico said, expressing a view that prevailed in separate interviews with his fellow councilmen.

As a utility vehicle, proponents point out, an ATV can make short work of tedious chores like lawn mowing and raking, snow plowing and salt-spreading. But in its sportier configurations, critics contend, young operators—some of them even pre-teen—are known to mount these motorized steeds for high-speed hijinks on homemade racecourses and public roads. Along the way, some residents complain, the ATVs introduce indiscriminate dust, dirt and noise into nearby homes or backyard gatherings.

Looking to mediate the opposing views, perhaps by amending Somers’ ATV regulations, the town board invited residents to talk things over Thursday night. More than three-dozen accepted the invitation, filling the seats and standing along the meeting room’s back wall. Under the current town code regulating ATVs, operators must keep 1,000 feet of real estate between their vehicle and a neighbor’s home. That strict standard effectively outlaws quad running—even on their own land—for all but a handful of Somers property owners, one resident, a lawyer, noted.

“We’re effectively banning ATVs in the town of Somers,” Joseph Vinciguerra of Londonderry Lane told the board. To avoid violating town code every time he plows his driveway, the attorney said, he hoped board members would cut in half the legally required separation between neighbor and vehicle, setting the new distance at 500 feet.

But that’s not likely to happen. Thursday’s discussion had been billed as simply an opportunity to obtain residents’ input. But a post-meeting survey of board members found no enthusiasm for tinkering with the letter of the law. Instead, most of the board said, residents could rely on police discretion to distinguish between lawn-mowing, driveway-plowing operators and nuisance joyriders.

Councilman Thomas A. Garrity agreed. “We’ve never had any complaints, or written any tickets, for someone who’s been using an ATV to plow their driveway,” he said. “To the best of my knowledge, we’ve never had complaints about using one to work in the back yard.” No one, he noted, “joyrides a tractor or joyrides a lawn mower.”

On the other hand, he said of an ATV, “We’ve had complaints when people use it to joyride either in the streets or on their own property.”

Councilman William Faulkner said that based on the meeting discussion, “I’m also inclined to not amend the current code. The majority of people do not want a change. And of course, we want the majority to rule.”

Like his fellow board members, Councilman Richard Clinchy sees no need to change the code as it now stands. While saying he’s open to being persuaded otherwise, Clinchy added, “You’d have to convince me that there’s a public good [in scrapping the current restrictions].”

Proponents of a more-relaxed ATV code see both public and personal good coming out of such a change.

For one, a 500-foot separation standard would make far more ATVs code-compliant, said Alycia Forbes. The mother of three lives on 7.5 acres off Route 202 but told the board even that much property did not allow her to meet the 1,000-foot separation standard. “You pretty much have to own 22 acres in order to comply with the law,” Forbes said. Indeed, she calculated, using town assessment figures, less than 4 percent of Somers’ property owners have enough land to run a code-compliant ATV.

Another mother, Amy Leahy, lives on Macaulay Road in South Somers. She said that in addition to providing much-needed help in the maintenance of her two acres of land, the ATVs have had a positive impact on her children, ages 12 and 14. “We’re not doing enough for our young people,” Leahy, a teacher, said. “And these quads have done such a fabulous job with my kids. It has taught them respect, responsibility and safety.”

SOMERS, N.Y.-The Fourth Annual Tech Help series kicked off Feb. 10 at the Lake Lodge in Heritage Hills.

The program was started by Teresa Chang in 2014 after she realized many older residents did not know how to use their cellphones and tablets. As a board member of At Home In Somers, Chang took on the project with the help of her two teenage sons in Somers High School.

SOMERS, N.Y.-Pitted against teams with a much larger enrollment such as North Rockland and Arlington, the Somers boys track and field team knew it would be an uphill battle to win a Class A sectional title.

The Tuskers left everything on the Armory track and finished in second place behind North Rockland, 79-70, at the Class A meet on Saturday, Feb. 10.

SOMERS, N.Y.-Somers will call on the collective wisdom of its residents this spring for help in deploying cameras as an arm of town-code enforcement.

Town officials have been considering how to use caught-in-the-act photography to curb, at a minimum, illegal dumping on roadsides and other public property. But more questions than answers have surfaced in recent discussions. So, the Town Board ...

SOMERS, N.Y.-It wasn’t the result Somers’ girls basketball team wanted when it headed to John Jay-Cross River on Feb. 9, but the Tuskers still managed a share of the league championship after a 48-38 loss.

After a 15-point first quarter, Somers scored only two points in the second quarter to dig itself a hole it couldn’t climb out of.

SOMERS, N.Y.-Dozens of residents in Somers have seen their electricity bills from New York State Electric and Gas increase dramatically in the last month, angering customers who’ve been dealing with frequent outages and what town leaders say is poor customer service by the utility.

A few days ago, I watched a rerun of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” In this particular episode, brothers Raymond and Robert went head to head over who would take care of their mother, Marie, during her later years (anticipating that father, Frank, would predecease her).

It brought back the decision Jack, Roe and I were faced with years ago regarding our mom. She was in her 80s, lived ...

Feb. 2 has come and gone and once again, we have foolishly entrusted a large rodent with six weeks worth of weather forecasting. This year they had a whole entourage of guys who wanted to cram into the Groundhog Day action, but there’s one head groundhog aficionado who’s in charge when they open up Punxsutawney Phil’s cage. Both man and beast are dressed to the nines, one in a ...

It was the day of the Finch Ball. Jason had been away on business, but was expected home in time for us to attend that evening.

I had graduated from Finch College two years earlier and was now married and expecting my second child. We lived in a one-bedroom garden apartment in Yonkers. It was a close community where everyone was young, friendly and just starting out. Each town house was ...

I’ve been a third-grade teacher for over 20 years and have never allowed my students to celebrate Valentine’s Day in my class. I know my colleagues think I’m mean, but I’m refusing to celebrate it for many reasons.

1) Children hand out cards to each other and there’s always some child left out or who gets very few; 2) Children are always asked ...

To be perfectly honest, I did not need a large rodent with insomnia to convince me that we had six more weeks of winter. It’s been so cold outside lately that when I go out, my nostrils stick together. The dog is so hesitant to go out that he does his business right on the deck, less than five feet from the door, and then gives me a look of contemptuous indignation when he comes back in the ...

How amazing to see my sister-in-law, Kim Maguire, on the cover of the Record!

We read our paper religiously! Last week, we saw our daughters' picture as volunteers at the Chili Cookoff! This is such a tight-knit community and having articles like the one done for Kim highlight some of the great people and servicemen and women who make this town so special. The writer who ...

I never watched the hit TV Show “Mad Men.” My best friend, who rarely watches TV, recommended it to me when it was gaining its first good reviews. I said, “I lived through that time period. I can see no good coming from reminding men about that sexist era.” Little did I know how right I was.